Unions

The establishment press has given an open mic to proponents of raising the minimum wage nationally, and has cheered $15-per-hour legislation passed in California and New York earlier this year as "historic." The silence from those same quarters, e.g., the Associated Press, the New York Times and others, is deafening now that one of the predictions of those who have criticized such sharp…

In an utterly amazing and totally unexpected coincidence, Verizon is reporting that there has been a spike in vandalism and sabotage against its facilities since workers went on strike on April 13. (That's sarcasm, folks.) Paul J. Gough at the Pittsburgh Business Times has reported the company's claim that "there have been more than two dozen cases of what it called sabotage to cables and its…

On Friday, the New York Daily News broke the news that "The head investigator for the state Board of Elections probed the 2014 fundraising efforts by (New York City) Mayor de Blasio and his team on behalf of the (New York State) Senate Democrats and found enough 'willful and flagrant' violations to warrant a criminal referral to the Manhattan DA’s office." The story has attracted virtually no…

On Tuesday, shortly after Governor Jerry Brown signed California's $15-an-hour minimum wage legislation, the Associated Press's Michael R. Blood and Don Thompson called the move "a victory for those struggling on the margins of the economy and the politically powerful unions that pushed it." As seen in a NewsBusters post on March 31, it's definitely a win for union members whose wages are set…

Perhaps this is why the press has been reluctant to cite economists who are predicting that sharp increases in state minimum wages like the $15-per-hour minimums just passed in California and New York will reduce employment: They're with many of their lefty brethren who don't care whether jobs are lost. So they must believe that no one else should care either. At the Washington Post's WonkBlog…

A Los Angeles Times story by Liam Dillon and Patrick McGreevy hailed the "historic" increase in the state-mandated minimum wage to $15 an hour. Apparently giddy with excitement, the pair also unwisely told readers that many public-sector employees who earn far more will be receiving big raises as a result of the legislation with having to bother negotiating with the government entities involved…

These days, one of the biggest meta-debates in politics concerns apportioning blame for the staying power of the Donald Trump circus. How much of Trump’s popularity is attributable to, say, the mainstream media? To conservative talk radio? In a Sunday post, The Washington Monthly’s Martin Longman pointed the finger at Republicans and absolved President Obama. Apropos of Trump’s economically…

To believe what the Associated Press's Tom Krisher and Dee-Ann Durbin wrote yesterday about February's auto sales, you have to believe that last month's car buyers were either: "a) affected with vertigo; dizzy"; or b) "frivolous and lighthearted; impulsive; flighty." That's because they claimed that in February, "consumers - giddy from Super Bowl ads - returned to showrooms after a snowy January…

Amidst all the discussions of the jockeying back and forth in the 2016 presidential race, Washington Post syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor reminded conservatives on Fox News Sunday of how the Democratic Party’s liberal base has been eroded and now largely has become almost desperately dependent on the votes of minorities and government works that all belong to public sector unions.

In this week's episode of Wal-Mart, I mean Superstore, we get to one of the issues we've all anticipated since the show's premiere: labor unions. As Cheyenne (Nichole Bloom) goes into labor at work, the chaos is comical but the dialogue is obviously meant to persuade the viewer that it's the store's responsibility to take care of the 17-year-old pregnant girl.

West Virginia became the nation's 26th state with a "right-to-work" law a bit over a week ago. At the same time, it also repealed "prevailing wage" requirements for public construction projects. The idea that the formerly Democrat-dominated Mountain State would pass either item was unthinkable as little as a decade ago. That was before the Obama administration began its war on coal-powereed…

More proof arrived on Sunday that the New York Times will never forgive conservative Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker for successfully taming his state's public unions and then surviving an expensive, union-funded recall election. Contributing “writer and musician” Dan Kaufman: “The Destruction of Progressive Wisconsin.” The text box: “Scott Walker has turned his state into a laboratory for the…

On Monday, ABC’s World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News chose to punt on covering the first of work in 2016 for the Supreme Court with a blockbusters case concerning the future of paying dues to public sector unions that often go onto lobby for liberal causes (even if some of their dues-paying members disagree). In contrast, NBC Nightly News and Pete Williams offered a full segment on what’s…

At the Associated Press, Wisconsin-based reporter Scott Bauer, who has spent the better part of the past five years describing Badger State Governor Scott Walker as "polarizing," has been given the opportunity to get involved with 2016 presidential campaign coverage. Leftists and Democrats rarely earn negative descriptors in Bauer's reports, while Republicans and conservatives receive them…